Despite the constant warnings about global warming and daily doses of environmental disasters on the news, there seems to be a lack of political will to tackle the issues at hand. So if the Chicken Littles are right this time around, what will we do when the sky starts falling? As the saying goes, :There is no Planet B".

In the late 21st century, the earth is being ravaged by droughts and dust storms and crops are dying en masse. Coop (Matthew McConaughey ), a former test pilot now fledgling farmer like almost everybody else, is just struggling to get by. But when his daughter begins experiencing strange phenomena it sets him on a path that will take him away from his family, and time and space as he knows it.

Itâ€™s hard to review a movie when there are so many potential spoilers you must avoid, so if you havenâ€™t seen a trailer for Interstellar and know nothing about the story, stop reading nowâ€¦.

Okay, you've been duly warned.

It turns out that NASA, which supposedly disbanded after the breakdown of the global economic system, went underground, and they need Cooperâ€™s help to follow up with several explorers who recently set off through a worm hole in search of other inhabitable worlds. If he accepts, he may never see his kids again, and may find nothing, but the alternative, is to sit back and watch the earth wither to nothing; either way, itâ€™s a lousy set of choices .

Interstellar is slow out of the gate, but the pace picks up once the protagonists get airborne (spaceborne?). McConaughey, who wasted years in rom-com hell, imbues Coop with an indomitable spirit, without straying in to melodrama, and taps in to the gravitas necessary to hold this epic together. Some of the movieâ€™s most powerful moments come from the scenes he shares with Mackenzie Foy, the young actor who plays his daughter Murph. Other notables include Matt Damonâ€™s manic performance as one of the aforementioned explorers, Jessica Chastain as the elder Murph ( no one can cry like her) and Bill Irwin who voices TARS, the smart ass marine robot along for the journey (donâ€™t worry, heâ€™s no HAL).

The movie boasts some IMAX worthy cinematography, including the two potential second earths (Iceland was the stand in with the aid of some CGI rendering) and one of the most scientifically accurate representations of a black hole (or at least thatâ€™s what weâ€™re told) ever depicted onscreen. The story boasts some interesting twists, ponderings on manâ€™s place in the universe, surprisingly humorous moments and some serious science. The latter, however, proves problematic.

Unless youâ€™re a big fan of quantum theory, and Mobius strip-style plotting, the narrative gets pretty dense and will leave many viewers bored, confused or both. This is exacerbated by the fact that Interstellar is ear-bleedingly loud, and like Baneâ€™s muffled banter in the Dark Knight Rises, you often miss key dialogue. Throw in a played out Dylan Thomas quote and the 170 runtime, and youâ€™re left with some serious obstacles.

Had the brothers Nolan focussed more on the relationships between the characters and trimmed down the convoluted scientific elements and the runtime, this could have been smart, accessible and entertaining, rather than a dense arthouse piece.